Tuesday, April 29, 2014

I have been amazed with all the mixed media/paper crafting videos out there and have wanted to try one for some time. I just couldn't envision me doing something like that even though I would "ooh" and "ah" over the beautiful pieces out there! Finally I got up the gumption and gave it a try! My first piece was much simpler and you can see it here. I decided to go a little further with this one and this is where I was led. I would say this is what I had planned, but it just seemed to take on a life of its own after I started!

Color My Heart is challenging us to use the colors from the Ariana Papers/Cardstocks for this week's challenge. You still have a day to play if you are inspired to use the colors!

The paper is all from the Ariana Paper Pack.

I cut the shapes including the mat behind the picture with the CTMH Art Philosophy Cartridge. I painted over the mat with a little Daisy White pigment ink to soften it.

The design in the upper right hand corner was made using a stencil cut from CTMH Artbooking. I cut it from a piece of Dura-Lar Acetate Alternative. It cut beautifully on my Cricut. Then all I had to do was make some Texture Paste from Gabrielle Pollacco's recipe and scrape it onto the paper using a fake credit card. (You know the cards you get in the mail that have a bogus number on them to try to get you to get the real card.) Anyway, it was pretty easy!

I loved making this project and I definitely see more mixed media art in my future! CTMH offers so many beautiful embellishments for this type of art project. I'm already getting my next order ready with a project in mind! Off to KatiesCorner to get more goodies for the next piece!

Note to my family: This piece is up for grabs.......who wants this picture from Katie's wedding? First one to say something, gets it! ; ) (I guess I'll see who in the family reads my blogs! hahaha)

Monday, April 28, 2014

Here we are on the last Monday of April and my last entry as a Guest Designer for the challenges at Heart 2 Heart. I hope you all have had as much fun with this month's challenges as I have!

This challenge theme is Flowers. What can be more perfect to prepare cards and gifts for Mother's Day? Now this holiday falls on May 11; so you still have time to make some beautiful gifts for all the special ladies in your life!

I have a couple of necklaces to share with you from CTMH Base & Bling Collection. These are so easy to make and the creativity can go as far as you would like!

I chose to use the Storyteller Style Sheet for the large square charms in Faux Antique Gold. The little added charms are from Free Thinker and Storyteller. The rhinestones are the Base & Bling Rhinestone Charms. I simply opened the rings that hold the charms, attached them to the chain, and re-closed them. The little chain hanging from the necklace on the right is the extender from the back of the necklace. I removed it and reattached it next to the pendant.

I wanted a dash more color and flowers; so I got into my stash and and found some little silver charms. I placed a piece of gold colored wire through it and bent the ends. I glued the charm piece on the back of flowers from the Ivy Lane Assortment. I also had some gold jewelry rings in my box of miscellaneous craft stuff. I used that to attach the flowers onto the necklace! As you can see the silver charm does not show, so it didn't matter. Besides, they are both neutrals and according to Stacy and Clinton from "What Not to Wear" we can mix them anyway, right? ; )

The point is, when it comes to designing your CTMH Base & Bling jewelry, you can't go wrong! Check out the creative Base & Bling Style Sheets or create your own. It really is up to you and your style!

Materials List

CTMH Base & Bling Faux Antique Gold Chain

CTMH Base & Bling Faux Antique Gold Square Pendant

CTMH Base & Bling Square Glass Cover

CTMH Base & Bling Rhinestone Charms

CTMH Base & Bling Storyteller Charms

CTMH Base & Bling Free Thinker Charms

CTMH Base & Bling Storyteller Style Sheet

Liquid Glass

For the added floral charms I used:

CTMH Ivy Lane Assortment

Gold jump rings

Silver charms to mount the flowers

Gold covered wire

Aleene's metal and jewelry glue to adhere the flowers onto charms

I so enjoyed my time as a Guest Designer this month! Thanks so much for inviting me to share my crazy craft ideas! I'm looking forward to Thursday and the new month of challenges!

For more creative ideas, check out KatiesCorner for CTMH videos and super projects!

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Color My Heart has an interesting Color Challenge this week! The colors are Honey, Pacifica, Outdoor Denim, and Indian Corn Blue.

This inspired me to start some non-traditional graduation cards. I have a couple of students graduating from a school where the colors are blue and yellow, so.......

This is a really quick post, but I'll explain how I did the hair on the girl. I stamped her with Colonial White Pigment ink. Once the ink was dry, I colored over her hair with a CTMH Honey Marker. That is the effect I got; sort of cool!

Monday, April 21, 2014

I LOVE this picture! Her body posture and expression are definitely worth a thousand words. I suppose a wedding can get a little long when you're looking forward to an ice cream social after the service!

Once Upon a Time is the theme for the Heart 2 Heart Challenge this week! How fun is that?! I'm sure we all have some storybook pictures to scrap or wedding/anniversary cards to make. This is the perfect challenge for it!

I have been somewhat mesmerized by mixed media tutorials lately and decided to take a very simple approach towards it. Everything you see here is from CTMH except the Mod Podge.

First I inked up the sides of the canvas with Smokey Plum, Sky, and Blush. I chose my papers, tore them on the diagonal and distressed the edges with Smokey Plum ink. I then coated the canvas with Mod Podge and stuck down the papers. I coated papers with with Mod Podge and laid down the picture. I gave it all one more coat of Mod Podge including the photo.

Once it was all dry, I decorated using beautiful embellishments from CTMH.

Monday, April 14, 2014

We all dread April 15th and taxes -- at least I do. I hate having to figure out all of my taxes, keep track of everything I do during the year, figure out what is deductible, find receipts, ugh! It's all so daunting to me! So, I decided to make a journal. I figured I might enjoy keeping records for my therapeutic riding and music businesses if I had a place to put receipts and such.

The challenge over at Heart 2 Heart was the perfect excuse to use the beautiful Skylark colors and papers for my Journal. I decided to put one month per page for the first 12 pages.

I wrote in a few things as I was making it to give you an example, but most of it is blank right now since I just finished it. I will give you some of the highlights on the pages and list materials at the end. If you have any questions about specific stamp sets, please ask! I won't try to type out all the details and bore everyone! ; )

My plan is to use the monthly pages for some planning, notes, pictures, etc. I put in some places for writing some goals and notes.

The calendars were designed in CCR by welding together the grid and font from Artbooking. The numbers were all stamped in using the Capture the Date set. The little goal tag is also from that stamp set.

This year the first quarter was all about a recital and Lenten Liturgical music. I did start the year by posting a couple of goals for the first part of the year to keep myself on track.

April is sort of a pivotal month starting with music and transitioning into my horse life; therefore I needed a larger goals sheet to tuck into the pocket. I have a lot to get done in the next couple of weeks! That tag is from Artbooking and stamped from Take Note. The clip is from Mini Medley Antique Gold.

May - August is all about horsemanship and riding: goals for me and my students. I have a couple of little tags to write some ideas I want to keep in the forefront of my mind. The horse from Horseshoes (retired) is looking at the tag for June! It is actually printed in the Skylark paper, so that worked out perfectly! I like how the glitter tape brightened up the page!

July is all about the 4th. Since we have American Quarter Horses over here, it seemed the perfect month to highlight them! The mare and foal are from the Country Born stamp set. August is sort of slow over here since I don't have kids in 4-H anymore! We sort of take it easy and spend time with friends to reminisce the days we spent at the State Fair and horse shows!

September is a big trail riding month here; I'm
hoping to take off for a Jamboree ride. The Explore your World is from the Timberline Workshop on the Go. I actually bought that set to scrap pics from that event! Sad when we plan our events and clothing around our paper! Such is the life of a Scrapper! October is the big show for my therapeutic horsemanship kids! This is the highlight of the year for all of us! That page will be stuffed with receipts, notes, evaluations, etc!

Although I'm still teaching in November, things are winding down! December is a time for reflection and back into performance groove for the Christmas season.

The last six pages will be used for over-all notes, receipts, mileage sheet, plans in detail, etc.

Ok, here is a Materials List. I'm sure I'll miss something. Again, if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer if you leave me a note in the comment box!

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Growing up in the 60's / 70's, I was a real Peanuts fan! I loved Charles Schultz and always seemed to love everything about this group of dysfunctional kids. It wasn't until I was an adult with my own ASD son that I realized just how important growing up with Charlie Brown and the gang would be.

My wonderful son is a cross between Charlie and Schroeder. Although Keith is not into music, he had a one track mind for horses. His whole world revolved around them and their behaviors. Most Science Fair, 4-H and FFA projects were horse related and our weekends were filled with horse activities. Like Charlie, he tried to be social, but it was so hard for him. He was terrible at sports and very unpopular----well, until he started hanging around horse kids. Then it was a different story!

He had such a difficult time, we had to take him out of school and I home-schooled him for a few years. It was a long, confusing, twisted road we travelled; but now Keith is a Junior at Purdue University studying Agriculture. We are so proud of this kid who was told he would never read, write, graduate HS, or go to a major university.
Ok, enough bragging on my ASD kid.....back to Peanuts and this card! I was inspired to do this card by the color challenge over at Color My Heart. The colors are Juniper, Creme Brulee, and Sorbet.

Now, believe it or not, Charlie and Snoopy are made from CTMH Cricut shapes. I think they were all from Art Philosophy and Artiste!

You can get an idea from the pictures how I put images together to make the characters. I have done this before and if you would like to see others I have done, go to CTMH Cricut Cuts with a Twist and you can view them there.

The card base is Creme Brulee as well as Charlie's shirt. The CTMH Baker's Twine is also a sort of Creme Brulee color. The doghouse is done in Sorbet and the background is sort of a variegated Juniper color. My neutrals are black, white, champagne, and brown.

I put Dimensional Tape under the top of the doghouse and behind Charlie to pop them off a bit. The sentiment is from the CTMH You Are My Happy stamp set.

All of my CTMH goodies are from KatiesCorner. She is a great consultant and puts up with all my crazy questions! I guess she should, I put up with her questions for a lot of years -- she's my daughter! Anyway, if you need anything visit her site or correspond with her; she'd be happy to help you, too!

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

I loved that ad! I can only hope there are some Cadbury Eggs in this cute little box from the CTMH Artiste cartridge!

I was actually in CCR looking for a bunny and found this adorable little box in Artiste.

My colors were inspired by the perfect Easter/Spring colors over at Color My Heart this week! My actual box is from the Chantilly paper pack. The patterned lagoon flower border is from the Skylark. The leaf and grass under the bunny are Sweet Leaf. I used a stamp from the Skylark Workshop on the Go to give the leaf and grass texture.

The Smoothie colored flower is embossed with the CTMH Dot folder and rubbed over with the Sunset ink. The sentiment was also stamped with Sunset and then colored with a Smoothie marker.

The eggs (gems) were colored with Buttercup, Smoothie and Sweet Leaf markers. I outlined the bunny with a light Slate marker. His eye is a black brad from the CTMH Black Mini Medley. I colored his nose and ear with a smoothie colored pencil. The orange/sunset ribbon is vintage CTMH when they sold the little ribbon rounds.

The flower and leaves are cut from the CTMH Artiste. The floral border is from Artbooking and the little grass is cut from the Art Philosophy.

This is the perfect challenge for your Easter and/or Spring projects! The colors are so fun and bright!

Monday, April 7, 2014

First off I want to say how excited I am to be the Guest Designer over at Heart 2 Heart this month! Yes, all month I'll be sharing my crazy ideas and ramblings! Please join in the fun! This first challenge is Cricut Cuts with a Twist!

So, with no further intro I'll get right to the project!

I'm sure you are looking at this thinking, "Wait, isn't this a challenge where we show off our CTMH goodies? Sure it is about Cricut Cuts with a Twist: Use a die-cut in a unique way, but .......... I don't get it!"

Ah, but you will!

Everything you see here is from CTMH! Really, it's true! I would never lie around these guys!

When I saw the challenge for this week, I was so excited because I immediately interpreted it to mean twist the cuts and change them in a unique way. Now, after talking with my family 2/4 of us read it that way, but my daughter thinks it means something else. She interpreted it to mean make a Cricut cut and USE it in a unique way like not in the usual card or layout. My son even got into this discussion and added he thought it meant to use it in a layout or card in an unexpected way. This is what I LOVE about Heart 2 Heart Challenges; they are really open to interpretation and we get to see how all of our crafty minds envision them!

So, I really literally went with the idea of Cricut Cuts with a Twist! I twisted, manipulated, flipped, welded, and made everything you see here from shapes in CTMH Artiste, Art Philosophy, and Artbooking Cartridges!

From his movie recent promos, here's Kermit!

I basically welded those shapes and hand cut an arc in the red and pink shapes to make the mouth and tongue. I'm sure you can see the rest since a picture is worth a thousand words! I cut two clovers because I wasn't sure of the size and I wanted some extras! I finished him up with a black marker. I cut off the bottoms of his collar for use in a window type card, but removed him for his Heart 2 Heart photo shoot!

As you can see, I used a lot of pieces for Pooh! Yes, I used socks in the honey pot and shirt! Now, that's some unique twists!

Now for my thinkers! I created these guys for a belated birthday card. Here's the funny part, the recipient's b-day isn't until May, but I always forget! So now I just plan to send a belated card! Snoopy's ears are cut from the 0 and his body was a flower vase. His head is an inverted raindrop!

Ok, so now you have an in-depth view of how my mind works. A little scary, huh? A little twisted? Maybe!

If you need one of those cartridges to make your own cuts, go on over to KatiesCorner. Now it's time to see how you interperate the challenge; head over to Heart 2 Heart and link up your project! You have until the end of the month!

Thursday, April 3, 2014

I have the wonderful opportunity to be the guest designer over at Heart 2 Heart for the entire month of April! There are so many beautiful projects submitted every week there. Come on over and enjoy some inspiration from the Design Team and the submissions!

This precious little bunny from Some Bunny has seen two prior appearances on my blog! One of them was for an earlier challenge in March with Heart 2 Heart! He's very popular with these spring flowers from Flowering Bunch. The egg cuts are from the Art Philosophy cartridge.

The pretty pink paper is Chantilly (retired), the Cotton Candy squares were embossed with the CTMH Dot EF. The glittered egg was cut from Buttercup as well as the card base.

The sentiment is also from CTMH Some Bunny.

Interested in seeing some great ideas, beautiful paper, fun tutorials? Check out KatiesCorner and see what CTMH has to offer! This is a great time to become a consultant. Please contact Katie if you are interested! She would love to share the incredible deals and perks to beginning your journey with CTMH this month! I have to say it is really fun to work with her! Of course, I would say that; she's my daughter! ; )

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Happy April 1! I'm so excited to be the Guest Designer over at Heart 2 Heart this month -- at least I don't think it's an April Fool's joke -- maybe I better check that out for sure! Anyway, let's go on the premise it's not a joke for now!!The Scrapbook Layout Challenge this month is Laugh Me Up April! How appropriate is that for today? We are to share our funniest memory of all time! Remember, it needs to be 12 X 12 layout(s) with at least one photo. This month you must include Baker's Twine in the layout. That's not hard to do! There are so many uses for twine and it comes in so many great colors!

My son and his best buddy were always doing 4-H activities that involved skits, costumes, horses, scripts, scenery, props, ,,,,,,, and of course - road trips! It seems these guys would be against all odds of winning all these contests, so we parents would say, "Sure guys, go for it!" Then, by golly, they'd win and move on to the next level! After showing horses, dogs, taking them off to camp, and hanging out for 7 years, we had all gotten to be great friends. So, we were all excited and amazed when they won the Indiana State 4-H Horse and Pony Team Demo Contest as Freshmen!

Road Trip! We were off to KY for the Eastern Nationals for the guys to present down there. The layout represents such a fun weekend for us. The skit they did was full of puns and humor as well as safety information about saddling horses. We had this horse made out of a barrel as well as all the other items they needed for the demo including: step, 2 saddles, pads, bridles, stands, helmets, stand for helmets and bridles, wagon to pull the horse, one poster, a fence for set design, grooming tools, resource materials, etc. Therefore, we loaded up the 2-horse bumper pull trailer to head down. The trip went smoothly, hotel was fine, meetings went well, everything great until we needed to unload the trailer for the actual demo.

We pull in front of the Expo Center, get out of the truck and start to unpack when a woman comes running over telling us we can't unload horses there! I told her we weren't unloading a horse and she asked if we had a horse in that trailer. I jokingly said, "Not a live one!" That's when she got excited telling us we couldn't unload a dead horse. I couldn't seem to get her to understand what sort of horse we were off-loading! She went for security and we unloaded quickly while she was yelling! Who knew a horse made from a barrel could get us into so much trouble!

Now this horse has a name, Magnum, and has been to many different exhibits, demos, and festivals! You can see him with the arrow pointing to him! I used the Baker's Twine to represent a sort of make-shift halter for that elusive equine! haha

I used Skylark Paper accented with Sweet Leaf, Smoothie, and Honey CS's.